Metallic fingers flick through the pages of books, their mechanical bodies emitting a churning sound as the engines recoil and repeat the movement.
Indian artist Shailesh BR’s kinetic installation Page Turner (Ulta Pulta) presents rows of these books, housed in contraptions made by the artist to perform a single action. A contemplation on ritualistic methods in academic and religious contexts, the work is also a critique of rote learning and an “unthinking reliability on mainstream media”, as the artist describes it, that have come to dominate contemporary modes of thought.
How language and knowledge are wielded and weaponised is a crucial question within Page Turner (Ulta Pulta), which is part of the exhibition Language is Migrant at Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi, which ends next month.
Presented in partnership with Colomboscope, a contemporary arts festival established in Sri Lanka in 2013, the show expands on the role of language within communities and societies. How does language travel and evolve? How does it shape us? How can it be used to control or liberate us? These are the questions it seeks to answer.
Language is Migrant takes its title from the 2016 poem-manifesto by Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuna, who lives in New York and Santiago. It's written in part to respond to rhetoric against migrants, continued global warfare and the ever-growing toxicity of fake news and divisive media.
These are very much South Asian narratives, but at the same time, we feel that these words do really kind of signify how global movement is and how movement is integral to everything
Anushka Rajendran,
curator
“Language is migrant. Words move from language to language, from culture to culture, from mouth to mouth. Our bodies are migrants, cells and bacteria are migrants too. Even galaxies migrate,” Vicuna writes in her opening lines.
“What is then this talk against migrants? It can only be talk against ourselves, against life itself.”
As much as language can be used to divide, it can also used to unite, as demonstrated in artist Lebanese-Dutch artist Mounira Al Solh’s In Blood In Love.
On view as part of the exhibition, the work comprises words scribbled in charcoal on the wall paired with a hanging textile piece. Embroidered words relate to love.
As part of this ongoing collaborative project, Al Solh first worked with groups of women in Sri Lanka, asking them to stitch words such as “affection”, “youthful passion”, “blood” and “fever” in English and Sinhala, compiled and translated from the 13th-century Islamic theologian Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya.
On the walls are columns of the words in English, French, Arabic, Tagalog, Sinhala and Tamil, proof of how concepts find homes in various mother tongues.
Anushka Rajendran, who curated the show with Colomboscope artistic director Natasha Ginwala, says the embroidery was completed during Covid-19 lockdowns. With limited access to stores for fabric, the women exchanged materials from home instead, adding a new dimension to the process of the work.
“It’s also about their own domestic confinement, and what that brings about. It’s meaningful to think about some of these words during this time and in this context, about what sustains them,” Rajendran explains.
Other artworks exemplify how the visual language of art can express lesser-known or suppressed knowledge and histories, particularly in relation to displacement and migration. Sri Lankan Vinoja Tharmalingam’s The Day, for example, traces the scarred landscape of her homeland, a result of the decades-long civil war. Stitching the paths of internal displacement and sites still populated by landmines, she creates a body of evidence that bears testimony to these memories.
Meanwhile, Vijitharan Maryathevathas’s illustrations offer a glimpse into the artist’s interior world, rooted in his experience of displacement after the Sri Lankan Army recaptured his home town of Killinochi from the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
Language is the translator. It could translate us to a place where we cease to tolerate injustice, abuse and the destruction of life
Cecilia Vicuna,
poet and artist
Lavkant Chaudhary’s Maasinya Dastoor series includes scrolls that chronicle the history of the indigenous Tharu community in Nepal, to which he belongs — a group oppressed through bonded labour, caste systems and displacement. The body of work acts as a testament to a people whose experiences have been left out of official documents.
“These are very much South Asian narratives, but at the same time, we feel that these words do really kind of signify how global movement is and how movement is integral to everything. Circulation is primordial to any part of the world,” Rajendran says.
Movement is inherent to human existence, and ideas within the works in Language is Migrant can ripple across the Gulf, where migrants arrive in search of opportunity, forming and navigating multicultural and multilingual communities linked by labour and commerce.
In the UAE, for example, everyday language can reflect the various nationalities that live here. Interactions can include scatterings of Urdu, Hindi, Filipino and Farsi (and their prominence varies across different neighborhoods), among the more dominant languages of English and Arabic.
How histories echo across different societies is highlighted in Pangrok Sulap’s impressive large-scale woodcut print on fabric titled All Nations are Created Special.
Conceived following months of dialogue between Pangrok Sulap, a collective of artists and musicians from Malaysia, and Sri Lankan music group The Soul, the piece overlaps the movement of Malay populations to Sri Lanka around 200 BC and ethnic hierarchies present in both societies.
Such historical parallels can also be drawn in the Gulf, too, where migration has been requisite to its progress and groups from around the world are building shared histories that otherwise would not have existed without movement.
As the entanglement of languages can reflect on the potential for more harmonious communities, with the right words, can we speak our way to peace? Vicuna believes so. “Language is the translator,” she writes. “It could translate us to a place where we cease to tolerate injustice, abuse and the destruction of life. Life is language.”
Language is Migrant is on show at Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi until May 8
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Result
Qualifier: Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by eight wickets
Fixtures
Tuesday, Lahore: Eliminator 1 - Peshawar Zalmi v Quetta Gladiators
Wednesday, Lahore: Eliminator 2 – Karachi Kings v Winner of Eliminator 1
Sunday, Karachi: Final – Islamabad United v Winner of Eliminator 2
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EHakbah%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENaif%20AbuSaida%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESaudi%20Arabia%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E22%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24200%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Epre-Series%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGlobal%20Ventures%20and%20Aditum%20Investment%20Management%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
The years Ramadan fell in May
RESULTS
2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
Winner: Najem Al Rwasi, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
2.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Fandim, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
3pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Harbh, Pat Cosgrave, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
3.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Wakeel W’Rsan, Richard Mullen, Jaci Wickham
4pm: Crown Prince of Sharjah Cup Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Jawaal, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Janeen%20Damian%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Lindsay%20Lohan%2C%20Chord%20Overstreet%2C%20Jack%20Wagner%2C%20Aliana%20Lohan%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Results
4pm: Al Bastakiya – Listed (TB) $150,000 (Dirt) 1,900m; Winner: Panadol, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
4.35pm: Dubai City Of Gold – Group 2 (TB) $228,000 (Turf) 2,410m; Winner: Walton Street, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
5.10pm: Mahab Al Shimaal – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Canvassed, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Midnight Sands, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
6.20pm: Jebel Hatta – Group 1 (TB) $260,000 (T) 1,800m; Winner: Lord Glitters, Daniel Tudhope, David O’Meara
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 – Group 1 (TB) $390,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Salute The Soldier, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
7.30pm: Nad Al Sheba – Group 3 (TB) $228,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Final Song, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
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Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The five pillars of Islam
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
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Maestro
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'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Cricket World Cup League 2 Fixtures
Saturday March 5, UAE v Oman, ICC Academy (all matches start at 9.30am)
Sunday March 6, Oman v Namibia, ICC Academy
Tuesday March 8, UAE v Namibia, ICC Academy
Wednesday March 9, UAE v Oman, ICC Academy
Friday March 11, Oman v Namibia, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Saturday March 12, UAE v Namibia, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem, CP Rizwan, Vriitya Aravind, Asif Khan, Basil Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Karthik Meiyappan, Akif Raja, Rahul Bhatia
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
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